Instagram cuts off Twitter integration for direct photo-sharing

Instagram has cut off its instant integration with Twitter, another move by a popular social network to keep its users' posts from easy sharing on a competitor's platform.

Twitter said in a blog post Wednesday that users are likely to notice that Instagram photos shared on the San Francisco-based microblogging service appear cropped incorrectly because the Facebook-owned service has disabled the integration between the two services.

In an email from a Facebook spokeswoman, Instagram founder and CEO Kevin Systrom offered an official statement on the move, saying, "A handful of months ago, we supported Twitter cards because we had a minimal Web presence. We've since launched several improvements to our website that allow users to directly engage with Instagram content through likes, comments, hashtags and now we believe the best experience is for us to link back to where the content lives."

Instagram announced a new Web portal earlier this month, getting away from its mobile-only roots and offering a standard way to view the photos on nonmobile devices. Wednesday's move will eventually lead Twitter users to the Instagram website when clicking on an Instagram link in Twitter, Systrom said Tuesday at a technology conference in Paris, which would make users' Instagram photos no longer visible on Twitter.

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Facebook, the world's largest social network, purchased the San Francisco-based photo-sharing mobile app earlier this year for $1 billion, though that price fell to less than $800 million because part of it was paid in Facebook stock, which fell sharply after a record-breaking initial public offering and before the deal actually closed, on Sept. 6. Facebook is now pushing for a new, Google (GOOG)-like privacy policy that would marry user profiles across its properties -- namely Instagram.

Many analysts have posited that Facebook's privacy change is the first step in monetizing Instagram, offering ads on the site and mobile app, as it does with its own offerings. Forcing Twitter users to go to the Instagram website or mobile app in order to see a photo would help in any advertising effort, giving Facebook more "eyeballs," viewers for whom advertisers pay.

"If the eyeballs are elsewhere, you have less to work with in terms of monetization," Gartner analyst Ray Valdes told Reuters on Wednesday.

Systrom told Reuters in an interview from Paris on Wednesday that he doesn't know when advertising will begin on Instagram, but realizes it's time for the service to start bringing in revenue.

"We don't have any specific plans to share about advertising yet," Systrom said, but later added "Even from the beginning when we started Instagram, we realized we had to build an independent business, and even within Facebook, we realize we still have to contribute to the business,"

Twitter is no stranger to the "walled garden" approach to social networking, as it has also moved to block popular apps that access its service and killed easy integration with Mountain View professional-networking service LinkedIn.

Instagram's change Wednesday just furthers the narrative that social networks are battling with each other to keep their users from switching back and forth, a fight that is likely to escalate between Facebook and Twitter, analysts said, with users stuck in the middle.

"There is no doubt that the two services are going to begin to clash. This is an interesting move and it will again affect users, who I think in many cases count on Twitter to share their Instagram pictures," Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg told Bloomberg News.

Twitter declined to comment Wednesday beyond the post on its Status Blog. Facebook stock increased 0.9 percent Wednesday to close at $27.71.

Contact Jeremy C. Owens at 408-920-5876; follow him at Twitter.com/mercbizbreak.